Recruit and select qualified people with the needed knowledge, experience and expertise
Take time to orient and acclimate them
Provide appropriate education and training to successfully launch them
Provide the right cultural environment to get work done
Provide meaningful assignments and challenges
Grow and develop the team

Demonstrating the commitment
Creating the right environment
Planning
Doing
Checking
Acting and following up
Education
Measurement
Celebration

Complete
Unambiguous
Verifiable
Consistent
Correct
Modifiable
Traceable
Testable
Feasible

Is it simple?
Is it logical?
Does it make sense?

Has the time
Has the desire to do the job
Is willing to put forth the effort to achieve excellence

Be flexible
Be tolerant
Be patient
Be understanding
Be nice

A checklist for assessing some important areas of project risk ...


1. Project Size and Scope of Effort Risk

What is the project's estimated duration?
What is the project's effort, in staff hours?
What is the estimated cost?
How much will the project schedule depend on availability of end-user staff for analysis and testing?
Will stringent quality requirement for the proposed system add to duration and cost for inspections, documentation and testing?
Is the end date fixed or flexible?

2. Business and Requirements-Related Risk

Will business success depend on the project?
What is the cost of ownership?
Do the users and management accept and appreciate the value of the new system?
How many departments or organizational entities are involved?
How complex are the deliverables?
How much will the project change processes?
How much will user procedures change?
How will politics affect the project team and project outcome?
How diverse is the user population?
How clear are the requirements?
What are the dependencies on other systems and processes?
How will implementation impact mission-critical operations?

3. Resource and Skill Risk

How many tasks are outside of  the project team's control?
Will the project require major hardware or software upgrades?
How many  departments must provide  resources to the project?
What is the availability of  technical staff throughout the project?
Which software languages, databases, tools, etc. are new to the technical team?
What  hardware is new to the technical team?
How complex and intricate is the logic that needs to be created?
How experienced in the product or business are the project team resources?

9.  Lack of control/change process
8.  Insufficient or no risk planning
7.  Unrealistic budgets
6.  Undefined project success/closure criteria
5.  Lack of stakeholder buy-in
4.  Poor project requirements
3.  Unrealistic schedules
2.  Insufficient resource planning
1.  Poor communcations

This blog will offer information about ideas, suggestions and techniques to turn around or fix troubled and failed projects